Racing Pigeon News

Super Rossi 2

17th DecemberIn a previous post I talked about the famous “Super Rossi”. A phenomenal racer / breeder for Embregts Theunis.

These lines are winning all around the world, and below I’ve attached 2 more Ace pigeons from this line. Two grandchildren of Super Rossi in Italy.

I chatted to Peter recently and the last 2 pigeons sold from him will be for sale on pipa.be in 2019. They will be far above our price range so I am happy we already have several children in the breeding loft.

Good luck to the buyers of these pigeons!

I also stumbled across the below information. Rather than summarise it’s better to copy and paste this from another blog. I do wonder how many racing pigeons have been victims of the shootings on route home? An interesting bird that does feature on the list of birds covered by the shooting license is the peregrine falcon:

Natural England have confirmed that they issued licences to shoot at least 40 species of birds between 2015 and 2018. The list of species makes for shocking reading and includes such treasured birds as the Skylark, Blackbird, Great Tit, Red Kite, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Kestrel, Bullfinch, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Plover, Robin and Wren. I received the grim news as a result of a Freedom Of Information request.Natural England say that these are all 'individual licences' permitting the 'lethal control (shooting)' of the said birds.The list doesn't even include any species listed on the CL12 'Air Safety Class' licence or General Licences GL04, GL05 and GL06, so the actual number of species targeted is likely to be much higher.I'd requested the information as part of my campaign to stop the cull of English Ravens and, in their response to my enquiry, Natural England have also confirmed that permission was granted to allow a total of 60 Ravens to be shot during the same period, 45 having been shot to date.The news that so many of our most treasured species of birds have been shot is appalling and fills me with dismay. I know many of you will feel the same.A significant number of the species for which shooting licences have been granted are classed as endangered and feature on the RSPB Red and Amber lists for birds of conservation concern, several including the Skylark, Curlew and Ringed Plover being in need of the most urgent conservation.While the specific reason for each of the licences being issued is not known, can there be any justification for shooting a Bullfinch? Or a Wren for heaven's sake?Who in their right mind requests permission to shoot a Skylark?And for what possible reason?The world, it seems, has finally gone mad.

Here is the full list of species for which shooting licences have been issued:-

New World Record

6th DecemberA massive new world record price for a pigeon has been set in China at the annual charity auction of the Pioneer club.

The Pioneer club is a famous pigeon club in China where many multi millionaires compete. The annual auction contains all the best racers from the seasons race programme where a percentage of the proceeds go to Charity.

The Ace pigeon from the programme is a blue cock called “James Legend”. I attach below an extract from the auction report:

The most important and prestigious title there is undoubtedly the Ace Pigeon, which was won in 2018 by James Huang, a Taiwanese businessman, based in Shanghai and in the Pioneer Club represented by Taiwanese top fancier Chen Yong-Shan, who races the pigeons bred by James.

The Ace Pigeon winner 18-791 was renamed "James's Legend", (which he deserves without a doubt) because never before has such an exceptional pigeon flown in the Pioneer Club; Four weeks in a row in the top prizes in four flights of 321 miles (500 km.) in different weather conditions (which contributed to the decrease in the number of basketed pigeons). On his own, "James's Legend" won 7 cars throughout the competition, including a Mercedes G63 worth ca. €150,000.

Besides the Ace Pigeon, James also won the title "Champion Loft" Pioneer 2018, and in total he received the keys of no less than 13 different cars!

On November 20 of this year the auction of the Prize winning pigeons from the Pioneer Club took place, and after a long bidding battle, James could take home his ace pigeon for the unimaginable amount of 22 million Chinese yuan (renminbi), which works out at a cool €2.78 million... An absolute world record!

James Huang himself bought his Ace Pigeon winner back to return to his own loft in the charity auction of all the winners (part of the proceeds is donated to charities). Because of the unrivalled records (both sporting and commercial), he baptized his winner "James's Legend".

James finally wishes to thank everyone for the many messages of congratulations he received.

The losses in these races are remarkably high and they start with around 10,000p so there is no doubt James Legend is a fantastic pigeon. But €2.78 million??? It’s a crazy price.

The breeding of James Legend? He is a complete cross - nothing “pure” which is a UK obsession for some and contains the bloodlines of Heremans (Rik), Koopman, Verkerk and Schaerlaeckens.

On Verkerk I mentioned in a recent post the top breeding lines of Sieka. Its amazing the amount of times the family Bas has created crops up and is no coincidence. There are currently grand children and great grandchildren for sale of Sieka and her brothers / sisters on pipa.be

Preparation

5th DecemberThe preparation for 2019 has been underway for a while and is almost finished.All pigeons have been vaccinated and undergone a complete test with our vet. Everything as expected was totally clear and no preventative cure will be done prior to pairing. I do believe this is a result of daily use of natural products which we have done for several years.

The lofts have also been fully disinfected, fresh deep litter is down apart from the young bird loft which will be finished over the Christmas period.

The selection took place as soon as the season finished. We are very strict but we will check again to make sure we are satisfied with every pigeon that remains. If everything goes to plan we will have a very nice team of widowhood cocks to race in 2019.

Last year we raced a tiny team of hens but if time permits I will try my best to devote much more time to the old birds.

Young birds has always been my favourite part of the season due to work commitments and I think you can achieve certain results with a motivated team of young birds that couldn’t be achieved with old birds. For example last year in a race from Swindon we had 40 arrive together and clocked 42 pigeons within 90 seconds. I don’t think such a result could be achieved with old birds.

But If luck is on my side and I have time in April we will push harder next year with the widowhood cocks and adding more Nationals to our list of honours is the ultimate aim.

New Purchases

1st DecemberLike everyone we have made some new introductions to the breeding loft for 2019.​I was fairly satisfied with the breeding team over the last few seasons but I wanted to buy some real special hens to complement what we already have. I think it’s important to not let your breeding loft get too old so along with new acquisitions we have moved the best racing hens into the the breeding loft.

For example - two 1st Fed winning sisters from 2017 move to the breeding loft. Also our three best racing hens from the 2018 young bird team will be bred from. I am a huge believer in breeding from yearling hens.

Outside of our racing team, 4 special hens have been brought in. I will write about all of them at a later point but the most recent and last purchase of the winter comes from the world famous champions Gerrard and Bas Verkerk.

A direct daughter of their famous breeding hen “Sieka” will breed here in 2019. It was almost a one off opportunity as Sieka is now 11 years old.

“Sieka” was a fantastic racer herself winning 4 x top 14 NPO prizes and was a top National Ace Pigeon. She is also a full sister of the top racers “Sienna” and “Kate”.

In the breeding loft “Sieka” has been exceptional and is Dam/Gdam of some brilliant racers including:

You also find a brother of “Sieka” in the pedigree of the current famous racer of Hok Vercammen “Iron Man” a sensational racer in 2018 with 3 x 1st with a huge lead in each race.

We hope to couple her with the father of our 1st National Brussels winner and he is also a brother, son and grandson of a 1st National winner at our lofts.

In or Out?

23rd NovemberNext week the SWG fed have a meeting regarding whether or not to pull out of the Welsh Combine. Some clubs are split and from what I understand it’s 50/50 although to force a change a two thirds majority is needed.

The question is, is pulling out of the Welsh Combine the way forward?

There is no doubt that the sport in Wales needs a shake up and it’s been too fragmented for far too long. As with almost everything in modern society self preservation is more important than the bigger picture. We see it at the moment to a certain extent with Brexit and the pigeon sport is no different.

Small organisations taking 300 pigeons every week is only good for the men who sell their birds off the back of it and then people purchasing birds off these fanciers just adds fuel to the problem. They are virtually just big club races and the word National probably shouldn’t be used to describe the winners.

But going back to the SWG fed. It’s a Fed we are proud to be members of. Actually only last year we had to close the books to new clubs as we reached our full allocation. So the first observation is if we broke it up in half and had half the members staying with the other half going off to other federations that can only be a negative.

But I do appreciate the argument from members who want to leave. The idea of flying to 200 miles and then having an open opportunity to fly Nationals without any Federation fees to worry about is very appealing. Factor in the midweek racing it’s really appealing to members like myself if we can’t send due to work commitments and don’t have to pay a “non senders” fee.

Although I do hate the argument pigeon racing is a weekend sport, to me the welfare of the pigeons always comes first.

This was proved correct on the final young bird race when reckless liberations took place on the Saturday with heavy losses where as the Burbure race took place a few days later and it was a cracker. Credit to the organisers and race controller of the WSE National for this.

In my opinion it’s not even a question of being in the WSE Combine or not. The whole sport needs a revamp. I think EVERY fed in Wales should have one joint liberation all together from the first race in April. We can all still have our separate federation results and also a merged one each week and there would be some huge birdage to win against on the total result. Strength in numbers and it would also reduce losses in my opinion.

Once we fly over the channel then we go under the umbrella of the National, everyone in Wales as one. The route is always a sticking point and I totally understand why. Especially over the East it’s more advantageous to fly direct South as the pigeons dog leg on this route and distances become a waste of time. The boys who want to fly the south route still have the BICC races but if everyone compromised, the SE in particular as they are by far the largest National for the greater good then probably we would end up going the S/SE route line to race points like Falaise, Orleans / Le Mans, Bourges etc. I think this would be the fairest solution for everyone.

I really do hope sooner rather than later everyone can fly in harmony, under one umbrella. I don’t think being in or out of the Combine will resolve anything apart from making the sport for SWG members a bit cheaper (certainly not a bad thing!) but at the same time being smaller it might make racing poorer and losses higher. But the sport as a whole needs a revamp rather than the tired format that seems to have never changed. That also includes the race programme although more collaborative liberations would be a great start.

Paratyphoid

15th November Paratyphoid is probably the disease that fanciers fear most. It’s a horrible disease that can have terrible and long lasting damage in any loft.

Vets seem split on the subject. Vaccinate or not to vaccinate? There is no doubt that the vaccine does hurt the pigeons for 48 hours, but is it worth it in the long run?

I don’t think it’s helpful for some fanciers who need a definitive answer and even the experts are split. A preventative cure during winter? Does it have any effect? I read a recent study that after a cure, the paratyphoid left in the carriers body grows quicker than the good bacteria and within 2 months you could end back in the same situation after a preventative cure (with no vaccination).

In the same study it’s also suggested that in the baskets on the transporter that up to 80% of the droppings are effected with salmonella (paratyphoid). If this is true then there is no doubt a preventative cure in the short term is useful after he season has ended, as it has no relevance on how the pigeons moult. But does it stop you getting the disease? Of course not.

Ive mentioned in previous blogs I am a user of many natural products that are active against salmonella. Again of course no guarantee. Next week I will add one more ingredient.

In a study in Brazil there has been positive results against salmonella with plant based substances and fatty acids that promote the good bacteria and suppress salmonella. I am going to test it on the pigeons during the winter as an addition to my homemade soup.

I have my pigeons tested for every disease on a regular basis anyway but it will be good to monitor if there is any difference by adding this new product. Although we have been lucky with Salmonella, I know fanciers in he area that have / are suffering from it so let’s hope this product is as good as the study’s suggest and the risk is lowered when mixing with other fanciers pigeons.

One note on vaccinations - I am a firm believer that they are of the upmost importance and the group of fanciers who vaccinate for nothing are just totally reckless.

Golden 10

6th NovemberOver the weekend the annual Golden 10 auction took place in Asten organised by De Duif. It was a huge success for the auctioneers and fanciers who sold pigeons with the sale over two days reaching over €1,000,000. The highest price was for a young bird from Gerrard Koopman that sold for more than €52,000. The average price was almost €7,000 per bird.

I’ve been to the event a few times now although I didn’t attend this year. It’s a great event and you get to speak with famous fanciers and I’ve also attended the meal afterwards and the food was excellent, paid for by the organisers. It’s also an experience to witness pigeons being auctioned for such huge prices. Of course the prices are out of reach for most people and nearly all the pigeons go to the Far East. I’ve heard the event described before as “The millionaires ball” which to an extent isn’t far wrong.

The big question, is such an event of benefit to the pigeon sport?

Personally I don’t see any harm in it, the fanciers who buy the pigeons can afford the prices and these types of figures are pocket money to them. Plus if it brings attention to the sport then all the better.

At the Golden 10, ten fanciers from Holland and 10 from Belgium put pigeons into the sale from their best. If the question is are they the best 10 in each country, and are the buyers getting value for money? The answer is no.

An example is the pigeon of Eddy Janssens sold for €43,000. A sister of the winning hens “Thelma” and “Louise”. Two good hens, with good results although personally I can think of plenty of hens close to home with equally as good if not better results.

There is a hen offered by Eddy at a local club sale at present, bred from a full sister to these hens, so the same way bred as the hen that sold for €43,000, and the last time I looked it was going for a very cheap price affordable for anyone. That’s a hell of a difference for a very similar pedigree. You do wonder if some of it is purely for commercial / marketing purposes?

It just proves that you don’t need a big wallet, and you don’t need to spend a fortune to obtain pigeons from great names. Just use common sense, shop around and do your homework and you can end up with a great team of pigeons for very little money.

3rd NovemberI started writing previously about some of the best pigeons I have ever come across, and to pick this back up there is only one place to start - Super Rossi.

Super Rossi is a chequer WF cock raced by Peter Theunis. He is medium sized, has perfect body shape and balance, soft feathers and as you would expect a strong back and completely closed vent bone. If you were to build a perfect racing pigeon this is how you would build it.

His breeding record is even more impressive than his racing record. He is the father / grand father of:

Super Boy - 1st NPO vs 17,334p

Super Daisy - 1st NPO vs 5,187p

Golden Ace - 1st NPO vs 5214p

National Rossie - 1st NPO vs 6419p

Athena’s Rossi - 1st provincial Ace pigeon 2017

Etc

His pedigree is also very impressive. His father is Young Rossi, a direct son of the New Dream Couple (Nieuwe Rossi x Eenoogje) of Leo Heremans and his mother is Miss Goldnugget, herself a top racer and winner of 5th Ace pigeon Brabant 2000.

We are very lucky to own 2 direct sons of Super Rossi and both have bred multiple winners for us. I know more and more fanciers across Europe and Asia are investing in children and grandchildren of him and they won’t be disappointed. An exceptional pigeon and one of the very best pigeons I have ever had the pleasure of handling.

Super Rossi

Auctions

2nd November Tonight I spoke with a pigeon fancier from Ireland about a current popular strain of pigeons. I’ve known about these birds for 10 years now but in the last 2 years they have become very popular in the UK. About 8 years ago I could have bought them from all the best for virtually no money but decided not too.

The conversation came about as he was offered a grandchild of one of the superstars of this “strain” for €1800, and asked if I thought it was worth it? Given that he would be buying a 3rd generation bird, the father had never raced, and he would be racing 4th generation I told him he would be crazy to buy such a pigeon.

What makes the market in the UK unique and one of the reasons I rarely go to auctions is the prices for over hyped pigeons. One example is in this weeks BHW. There is a sale for a Belgium fancier and no doubt they will make big money next week. The fancier is now also contracted to a UK stud for 3 years. Ironically you can buy direct pigeons from the stock loft of this fancier in the local club sales in Belgium for €40 - €80 euros as recently as the past 7 days. Yet in the UK next year you can buy a generation further away for £500 each? It’s crazy and you really don’t need to spend that sort of money for good pigeons.

I mentioned it before but just take a look at the results on sites like Pitts.be, compuclub etc before diving in to these auctions, I think when you see some of the results it will be a huge eye opener.

Medication

1st November In my last blog I touched on the fact that we use natural products daily especially in the autumn and winter months to keep the pigeons in perfect health. The only other thing that’s done here is a complete test by our vet 4 weeks before breeding to make sure the pigeons are in perfect health, and the 4 week gap ensures that there is plenty of time to give the pigeons a cure if required. Most of the time nothing is needed although I do give a drop for lice every 6 months so usually this is all that’s done.

I mention the word complete test. It’s important to have your pigeons tested by a proper pigeon vet, rather than the basic test offered for worms, cocci and canker. Most fanciers who observe their pigeons should be able to tell if the above is in play by observing the droppings and handling their pigeons on a regular basis and looking at the throat.

After the moult it seems to be the time when fanciers start to medicate for literally everything before breeding and racing rather than having a complete examination. I think it’s a huge mistake. I hear of local fanciers still suffering from eye problems during the moult and also dropped wings / lumps on the wing joints. Is this a result of over medication of products like Baytril during the season? I I think in some cases it’s true. They have weakened the immune system permanently and the pigeons are becoming worthless. Sadly it seems some then have a big auction and pass on the worthless stock for big money. Keep an eye on the fanciers who go through new family’s every 2 or 3 years and turn up from nowhere on the breeder buyer races. Our old family has been winning since the 90s and they fill every egg into old age and are still winning in 2018. This isn’t possible with too much medication. There are some good videos on YouTube on Wolfgang Roeper from Germany, and excellent fancier who also is of the same opinion.

Don’t rush to the medicine cabinet too quickly, have regular tests with your vet and use only when needed. Always observe your pigeons 365 days a year and most important, select extremely harshly on results and natural health. The pedigree should be the least important factor when selecting.

Natural Approach

23rd OctoberAs mentioned previously as soon as the season ends a 100% natural approach is adopted here and the pigeons are expected to “harden” during the autumn / winters months before breeding.

The selection should already have taken place, and the old birds will be about finished with the young birds well on their way to a perfect moult.

If anyone hasn’t already, now is a perfect time to move over to a natural system.

A natural system takes a while to implement and take effect. It can take several weeks / months. Natural products need to be used very frequently to have any use. Using for example cider vinegar or garlic one or two days a week is fine, but you won’t achieve much benefit of such a product.

For the past few years daily I give a homemade soup that i make using 12 different natural ingredients. This year I’ve added two more - one which I grow in the garden. It’s a simple easy to maintain plant called Nasturtium.

Nasturtium they say the more you treat it badly - the better it grows. I don’t have to do much to maintain it.

Below are some of the benefits of Nasturtium. It’s isn’t the only ingredient that has this effect in the homemade soup - but the pigeons wattles are perfectly white and the throat is lovely and pink with perfectly formed droppings like marbles.

Health Benefits of Nasturtium:

Nasturtium can act, both as a disinfectant and a healing agent. All the parts of nasturtium plant seem to have strong antibiotic as well as antimicrobial properties. It works great against various fungal infections, yeast infections when applied externally.

Benefits Of Nasturtium In Treating Urinary Tract Infections And Infections Of Respiratory Tract

The herb is known to be primarily used as an herbal remedy for urinary tract infections and infections of the respiratory tract.

Respiratory Health Benefits of Nasturtium

Nasturtium leaves are naturally antibiotic and if one leaf is eaten per hour, at the onset of a sore throat, can reduce the severity of the infection in a drastic way. In South America, the leaves of nasturtium are still used for treating cold, coughs, flu, bronchitis, sore throat etc.

Relieves Muscle Pain

There is also another health benefit of nasturtium. It was traditionally used for treating muscular pain. You can use it directly on the skin to treat mild muscle pain.

Immunity Booster:

Nasturtium is a great source of immunity-boosting vitamin C and thus may be used for enhancing immunity, also used as a natural remedy for helping the body overcome and prevent influenza and common cold.

Benefits of Nasturtium in Treating Cuts:

It is also used for reducing external and internal bacterial infections and also for treating minor cuts and scrapes.

Promotes RBCs Formation:

It is known that Nasturtium is beneficial in promoting the formation of the RBCs or the red blood cells and it has been used in folk medicine as an herbal remedy against scurvy.

The Moult

10th OctoberNow the season is over it’s time for the pigeons to have a much earned rest and come through the moult. The stock / old birds are almost finished and since the races finished 2 weeks ago the young birds are well on their way with daily flights being picked up off the floor.

How important is a good moult? I think now you start to put the plans in place for a good season next year, so for me a good moult is vital. How do you achieve a good moult?

Our system is very simple. I think the first thing is not to scrimp on quality feed now racing is finished. Some people feed the mainstream brands and once racing is over feed a cheap farm mix that can be very basic and dusty. Not all farm mixes are like this some are very good! But a well balanced mix with plenty of protein and a good selection of seeds (fats) to help the feathers grow is important.

By products? I acidify the water every day and a few times a week add a multi-vitamin on top of the acid to the water. Is the latter needed? I’m not so sure as if you feed a good mix the pigeons should get all the essentials from the feed. But I feel like I’ve done everything I can by adding it so I won’t change it now. And thats pretty much it.

One important note is I also open all the ceiling vents and the pigeons have access to plenty of oxygen in the aviaries. This is very important and the pigeons now can harden and toughen up. By doing this it’s easy to spot any weaklings in the group that can’t handle it. These are instantly removed and selected out although from years of strict selection this isn’t the case anymore.

End of Season Results

5th OctoberI haven’t posted any results for a while due to work commitments - but attached below are the results from Maidstone, Hythe and Burbure.

The pigeons certainly kept their best form for last - and this was the aim at the start of the season. Last year they peaked a few weeks too early and maybe the last two races weren’t the best - so this year we adjusted the system to try to win the Nationals. We came ever so close and in the end the south winds were our biggest competitor.

Hythe turned into a few special race. 6 pigeons arrived together, and then another 5 and then the pigeons started dropping from everywhere like rockets. In the end we placed 33 pigeons in the top 40 prizes of the Federation, a new federation record surpassing our feet last season from Maidstone placing 26 pigeons in the top 40 prizes.

Burbure was bittersweet. Due to the south winds I expected the pigeons to arrive after 5 and a half hours. After 5 hours and 3 mins (12:48) one of our best youngsters arrived like a bullet and we made the unforgivable sin of not being ready. I accidentally frightened a pigeon and after a mad dash and rushing to get a dropper we clocked him at 12:50 losing 2 mins. This cost us the 1st National and we ended up being 3rd National but winning 1st Federation and placing 10 pigeons in the first 17. I will never make this mistake again - it’s life and what’s important is you learn and don’t make them again.

Overall it was still a very satisfying season and we are Federation champions again with the young birds (6 times in 8 seasons) with one season not flying at all.

We plan for 2019 and now I have more time I will write much more often.

Well done to all the winners and, especially during the young bird races, well done to the race controllers for keeping a level head and taking no risks when other federations seemed to make reckless decisions.

References

4th October I mentioned in an earlier post we would breed a small team of young birds for Ian and Alan Evans and these would be raced in Aberbargoed in the Rhymney club in the WNR fed.

I haven’t written too much about it yet but Ian and Alan raced very well and won 8 x 1st in 9 races entered. It was a great first season result and hopefully we can build on this and try and win even more first prizes in 2019. Congratulations to both Ian and his Dad!

Newbury 2

31st AugustLast weekend we raced again from Newbury, the second time in 4 days.

The pigeons improved from their first flight and we managed to take 9 of the top 10 prizes with 14 pigeons arriving together.

The winner is bred by Richard Shepard of Rasbull lofts. 27 has been a very consistent pigeon already taking 4 top 15 prizes, so this was a well deserved win.

The pigeons are starting to take shape and look like the team of 2017 after the “fat eye” outbreak which still seems to be decimating some fanciers in Wales and England.

This weekend we race from Epsom. The wind is SE which is no good for our location, but better to have it this week before the big races start!

Newbury

23rd AugustOn Tuesday we raced from Newbury. It was a very patchy race with overcast / poor visibility.

I have I admit I was apprehensive to send as nearly all my young birds were having their first race. Our pigeons have suffered with the “fat eye” and it’s set out plans back by 2-3 weeks.

But, the first timers performed very admirably, I was very proud of them considering the poor preparation. We finished taking the first 16 prizes with an 8 min lead over our nearest competitor. We had four arrive together, 3 of them grandchildren of the number one breeding couple “Snow Queen (Embregts Theunis) x Son De Orleans (Jan Van Der Putten)” and a grizzle cock bred by Rene Vervoort in Belgium.

I have just found out the programme has been put back a week and we fly again from Newbury on the weekend. I hate to criticise the decision makers as they give their time for free but I think the race controlling and the way the programme has been handled in the past 4 weeks has been extremely poor. Lets hope for a more common sense approach over the next 4 weeks and some better races.

Swindon x 2

14th AugustAfter some race cancellations and a spell of extremely bad weather we managed to have two races from Swindon in a 5 day period.

Since the last race from Hullavington, where the birds performed sensational our loft has suffered with the fat eye problem. Thankfully it has now completely left the loft but until the problem had gone I have only been basketting pigeons that had fully recovered from it. It meant 35 pigeons were basketted and 65 remained at home.

It has been a very frustrating 2 weeks but the positive is it has come and gone before the important races have begun. But it has set us back a bit. We are left with 65 unraced pigeons so now we rely on a bit of luck.

One point on the fat eye - what has been the most disappointing aspect is that fanciers are basketting pigeons with no regard for others. Mine picked up the problem from other pigeons. I have counted at least 5 pigeons in every crate in my own club with the issue before I have even placed my own in the basket. Fanciers then blame the race controller for losses when the answer is right in front of them.

What I have found does help is either Clinagel Vet ointment or 0.5% optrex infected eye drops. It just helps resolve the problem a little quicker.

The last race we managed to take the 1st, 2nd and 4th prize.

Both pigeons clocked at exactly the same second.

The winner is a double grandson of “Snow Queen”, and a direct son of the 7th National Hythe.

The second pigeon is from the pigeons of Nick & Roger Thijs x the original imports of Henri Van Doorn from the Chrisje line.

The 4th prize I was particularly pleased with. He is a grandson of the world famous Super Rossi x a hen of Ad Schaerlaeckens. This cock was having his first race and hadn’t actually been in the training basket for 10 days.

These pigeons prefer a head wind - I hope these conditions will stay for the remainder of the season!

Great Start

28th JulyLast weekend we basketted 20 young pigeons for the race from Hullavington.

It turned out to be a fantastic result. We had 14 of our 20 entries arrive together with 2 more close behind. In the club we managed to 17 of the top 18 prizes and below is the Federation result. Against 1,011p we won 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 18th and 19th etc.

We missed the 1st Federation by 2 secs and we lost over 1 minute on the pigeons but that’s racing. The team result for me is far more important.

The 1st prize is a direct child of “Super 268” from Jan Van Der Putten. The mother comes from the Cannonball line of Peter Theunis and is a winner of 2 x 1st prizes for us.

The 2nd prize is a from a cock from Peter Theunis x a daughter of 1st National Maidstone.

The 3rd prize comes from Richard Shepard from Rasbull lofts. It’s a half brother of 4th National Burbure 2018 for Alan Winder. Richard has some excellent pigeons and gave us a batch to try this year.

The 4th, 5th and 6th prize are all grandchildren of our number one breeder “Snow Queen” who is the mother of 1st National Maidstone.

The race this week has been cancelled due to bad weather so we prepare them now for a race next weekend. My main team of 80 young birds should hopefully be ready for this race if we can get 2 or 3 more training sessions in during the week.

More References

23rd JuneOn Monday the SWG federation held a race from Swindon. We didn't send to this flight due to work commitments but congratulations goes to our club mate Alan Walters who wins 1st club and also 1st Federation Swindon with a 100% G Thomas & Son pigeon.

We gifted some pigeons to Alan from our Jos Das x Peter Theunis (Super Rossi) lines. Congratulations on a great result! Alan also won from the same race point a few weeks ago with a Grizzle hen also from the same bloodline!

Duffel

Apologies for not posting anything for a little while. I have been ill with chicken pox and the spare time I had when I wasn't in bed, I was training the pigeons.

The race took place from Duffel last week (Weds 13th June) and it turned out to be nothing short of a disaster. The returns are still awful with examples like:4/20, 3/22, 6/23, 2/17 etc. Pigeons from this flight have been reported all over Europe from North Holland to West Germany.

We were more lucky and as at this moment we are at 3/5. Our best hen, a granddaughter of the famous Space boy of Peter Theunis took the 2nd prize but it was little consolation as we lost 2 very nice yearlings. The hen will now be prepared for Kinzweiler on the 28th June, a race she won by several hours last year and we should also have a very nice granddaughter of Super Rossi also for this race.

Incidentally congratulations goes to Peter Theunis on winning 1st NPO Argenton (daughter Super Rossi) and then a week later following it up with 1st NPO Gien. Also to Jan Van Der Putten who won 1st, 2nd & 3rd in CC Uden the same day and 3 top NPO positions in Oost Brabant. This is the first time in many years he races old birds and the results have been excellent!

Now I am better I will try to update the blog a few times a week.

Burbure

Tonight we basket the pigeons for Burbure which is around 265 miles (425km). I hope to enter 12 hens, 3 remain at home. This will be the 4thflight for some, the 3rd flight for a few others.The 3 that remain at home are all very good pigeons. One is our 1stFederation Epsom winner (fastest against around 5,700p), the other two are both multi prize winners and actually won 1st and 2nd Hythe two weeks ago. But since then they have been struck with a muscle injury. For the first time in a few days today they wanted to exercise with the other hens and flew for around 15 mins, but all 3 remain on the side-lines for the rest of the programme. They have already proven themselves so will come back if we decide to race old birds next season.The reason for the injury? I think it is down to maybe too much too soon. I only started letting the birds out 6 weeks ago. Within 3 weeks we were winning the 1st prize but they were already at over 196 miles (315km). The preparation wasn’t ideal due to a mix of bad weather and the hawk problem, but there are no regrets I wouldn’t change too much up to this point.Our hens race on widowhood but we actually have 3 hens sitting on one chick in the corner of the loft. Although they are not coupled one of the hens laid 3 weeks ago, two others decided they wanted to sit on her eggs. Now all 3 fight to sit on the young bird. Only two will be entered, so it will be interesting to see how they perform.Good luck to everyone who enters, we hope for a West wind and any possible south wind will stay away otherwise the result will again be dominated by the east section.

Consistency

Today we raced from Hythe. The pigeons were liberated at 6:50am in a variable wind. Almost every weather site had something different. Here at our loft the wind all morning was South Westerly.

In the club we were again 1st and 2nd. I was satisfied with this, that's 2 x 1st and 2 x 2nd in three races. Our first pigeon was another grandchild of our number 1 breeder "Snow Queen". The father is one of our original HVD pigeons, a brother of "Wooper". Our second pigeon is a direct daughter of "Flyingbolt", our 1st National Brussels winner. Both hens already had a lot of good Federation positions as young birds in 2017.

In all we have now won 15 of our last 17 races we have entered in the club. The other 2 races we finished 2nd. It may give off the impression we fly against no one. But including ourselves there are several multi National winners who also race in our club, so the competition is good.

I've heard 2 different rumours of who is winning the Hythe National, I should find our tomorrow but congratulations to the National and section winners. We now move on to the next race in 2 weeks from Lillers. Next weeks race from Swindon will purely be used as a tune up for the next National.

Adeno arrives

Over the last couple of days the Adeno virus has found its way into our lofts. It started with the later youngsters, and now the early youngsters (different loft) are effected.

I've treated the later youngsters and already they look much better. There have been no deaths but I have removed 6 which show the worst signs. It seems to be the "normal" Adeno virus that can be treated within a few days with medication from De Weerd, not the stronger version which is hitting lofts all over the country.

I spoke with a friend of mine yesterday who lives close to where I work. He now has had Adeno twice. The first time was mild, now it's the harder virus and he already has 10 deaths. I just hope at our own loft that we now have "got it out of the way". I think May is probably the best time to have it, there is nothing worse than having an outbreak during the racing season and missing 2 weeks of racing!

I've read the below over the weekend on the 13th May regarding what could be the issue - Rota Virus has been in Germany and Australia for 2 years. Below is the translation - very interesting indeed.

Rotaviruses are associated with treacherous diarrhea, which can be particularly severe in infants and toddlers. If the little patients are not treated in time, a rotavirus infection can also be fatal. But not only in humans, these diarrhea pathogens occur. Rotaviruses have been detected in many species of mammals and birds. The main symptom of this infection is always the same: diarrhea. At the CVUA Stuttgart and at the STUA Aulendorf – Diagnostic Center, rotavirus tests are routinely performed on calves, piglets, and chicks with gastrointestinal disturbances. In hundreds of samples, we have already found the virus. Recently, the virological laboratory of the CVUA Stuttgart could detect rotaviruses in pigeons. Until recently, rotavirus infection was largely unknown in these birds. Only since 2016, more rotavirus diarrhea in letter and breed pigeons on the Australian continent. In this paper, we report on three rotavirus infection outbreaks in wild and kept pigeons in Baden-Württemberg.

At the beginning of November 2017, there was an outbreak of infection in breeding pigeons in the district of Esslingen. In a stock with about 50 pigeons of the breeds at the Rheinische Ringschläger and Thurgauer Elmer occurred within a few days several deaths. The pigeons were housed in 3 aviaries with sand bottom, which were covered to one third. As the first animal, a young female was puffed up and died within 24 hours. A young robber who had previously been kept in a domestic attack also died after spending a few days in the robbery after the onset of weakness. A third youngster died a few days later without any recognizable signs of illness. The dead animals came from two different aviaries. The third aviary was not affected.

The feed used was a commercial pigeon feed with added wheat. The last new entry was made in early 2017. Participation in exhibitions had not taken place.

Two of the dead birds, a young female, and a youngster, were sent to the State Veterinary Investigation Office Aulendorf – Diagnostikzentrum (STUA Aulendorf-DZ) to determine the cause of death. Both pigeons were in a moderate nutritional status and had a high degree of spleen swelling and catarrhal bowel inflammation. Craw and stomach were food-free.The liver had profuse, diffuse, acute degeneration and necrosis, as well as a high-grade, multifocal, periportal-accentuated monocytic inflammation (Figure 1). Furthermore, a marked degree of hemosiderosis of the liver was noticeable. Both animals had low-grade, multifocal, interstitial monocytic nephritis.

1: Histological picture of the liver. Shown is a hematoxylin-eosin staining at 20x magnification. High-grade, diffuse, acute degeneration and necrosis can be seen, as well as a high-grade, multifocal, periportal accentuated monocytic inflammation. Also striking is the high-grade hemosiderosis.

Bacteriological examination of the liver revealed only nonspecific germ growth. From the intestine, a physiological intestinal flora could be detected. By means of enrichment procedures, no Salmonella was isolable. Endoparasites were undetectable in both young pigeons. However, both animals had a high infestation with featherlings. An infection with Paramyxovirus 1 could be excluded by molecular biological examination.

Electron microscopic examination of liver and spleen samples at the CVUA Stuttgart clearly identified rotaviruses in large numbers (Figure 2). In this case, it is assumed that rotaviruses were the cause of disease and death of the pigeons.

At about the same time, another outbreak of infection occurred. In Backnang in the Rems-Murr-Kreis in a narrow circle, 5 street pigeons were found dead. One of the pigeons was forwarded to the CVUA Stuttgart by the competent veterinary office to determine the cause of death. In particular, it was to be clarified whether the pigeons had been shot down or poisoned.

The carcass submitted for examination was – as can be seen from the lentil-sized Bursa cloacalis – a young pigeon in poor nutritional status. Craw and stomach were food-free, in the gizzard only Gritsteinchen available. The main findings were high-grade catarrhal bowel inflammation and hepatic congestion. Evidence of the effects of trauma was not found. Also, poisoning seemed unlikely due to the lack of bait material in the crop and stomach of the animal.

The bacteriological organ findings were inconspicuous. A parasitological examination was able to exclude infestation with both intestinal parasites and trichomonads. A real-time PCR, which was used to examine a pigeon brain sample for Paramyxovirus 1 infection, also revealed a negative result.

Figure 3: Street pigeons in the city can also develop rotavirus infection. Figure

Inspired by a report in a pigeon fancier journal that a novel highly pathogenic rotavirus has been spreading in letter and breeding pigeon flocks in Australia for about one year, an initially frozen liver sample of the pigeon was examined by electron microscopy.

In the electron microscopic examination of liver samples at the CVUA Stuttgart, large numbers of rotaviruses were clearly identified, as in the first described case in racial pigeons (Figure 4). Also, in this case, it is assumed that rotaviruses were the cause of death of the pigeons.

Because of this diagnosis, a dying already a month ago in Althütte, also Rems-Murr-Kreis, again under the magnifying glass. On a company site, several dead street pigeons were found within a few days. An initially suspected poisoning could be ruled out. Also, in this case, numerous rotavirus particles were found in the subsequent electron microscopic examination of an asserted liver sample and thus the diagnosis of a rotavirus infection was made.

The described cases show that rotavirus infections in Baden-Württemberg can lead to an acute illness with death in both wild and caged pigeons. Due to the small number of proven cases, a statement about the spread of the infection in Baden-Württemberg is not yet possible.

The virological institute of the University Hospital Freiburg was able to prove the genome of group A rotaviruses in further investigations of organ samples from both outbreaks of infection.

A molecular biology typing of the virus was initiated. This is to clarify how close the Rotaviruses from Australia and Baden-Württemberg are related to each other.

InformationrotavirusRotaviruses are members of the Reoviridae virus family. The pathogen is considered to be the leading cause of diarrhea in humans as well as mammals and birds. The disease occurs mainly in infants or young animals.

In the electron microscope, rotaviruses can be represented as round, about 70 nm to 80 nm large uncoated particles. The virus genome consists of 11 segments of double-stranded RNA. Rotaviruses are divided into 8 groups (A to H) and several subgroups (see P [] and G [] genotypes).

The transmission of the infection is fecal-oral. It is a typical smear infection. In acute cases, large amounts of virus are excreted in the feces (10 9 -10 11 virus particles in 1 g feces). The viruses show high resistance to environmental influences and can remain infectious in feces for several weeks.

The incubation period is usually very short. Already 24 hours after the infection first symptoms appear like watery diarrhea, lack of appetite and restlessness.

The virus is detected directly in the feces or intestinal contents by electron microscopy or by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). For some species, ELISA tests are also available to detect the virus antigen.

Therapeutic measures are not very effective. Prophylactic vaccination is possible in some species.

Rotavirus was first detected in pigeons in 1988, but until recently they were not associated with a serious disease of these birds. Accordingly, there is little information in the literature about the distribution of these viruses in pigeons. Since May 2016, more and more outbreaks of pigeon populations have been recorded in Australia. The animals show the typical symptoms of rotavirus infection, such as diarrhea, apathy, and loss of appetite. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) currently estimates morbidity (incidence rate) at 50% and mortality (mortality rate) at 20%. The rotavirus strain isolated from the pigeons is considered harmless to humans.

1st and 2nd

The birds today from Epsom were liberated at 7am in a south west wind.

South west isn't a great wind for us, but I expected a big improvement from the hens with a race under their belt after only a light preparation.

They didn't disappoint and locally against 200p we won 1st and 2nd with a 5 minute lead. Our velocity was 1460, which was actually quicker than the other Welsh organisation winner on 1447 racing a little bit further from Maidstone (3,500p).

Our combine liberated around 5,000p, the best I hear from the total release is around 1480 at lofts northerly of our location. I expected this but am very happy to be so close. Next week we race the first National flight from Hythe, so we hope for some more luck and a nicer wind!

Epsom

I’ve just seen a copy of the federation result from Newbury and we started with the 40th position against 1,662p. We had 16/18 in a very short time period, if we had a prize system as per in Belgium and Holland I do believe the prize percentage would have been 88% based on the other club results I have seen. In the strong pencoed club our first arrival would have placed 3rd and would have even won the race if she had trapped straight away.

Our first arrival was a full sister to "Denman" and "Kauto Star", so a daughter of Snow Queen (Peter Theunis) and the son of "De Orleans" (Jan VD Putten). This couple has been at the centre of a lot of our best performances since 2014 and I'm sure they will be for years to come.

I'm satisfied with the result considering the preparation was only a very short training flight from a few miles and one hour training once per day. The idea was for this to be the worst result, with improvements week on week.

This week we fly from Epsom, which hopefully every east to west federation in Wales will hold a joint liberation. We should have at least 14 entries tomorrow, one hen has laid and another injured her leg during the race last week. She still trains well, so if she passes an examination she will be entered.

The wind for Saturday seems fairly minimal in the morning turning southerly as the day goes on, so we hope for a morning liberation otherwise the winners will surely again be at the most northerly clubs.

New Article

I’ve added a new article to the articles page called “products”. It’s a small article but I will try to write more articles on this page, and also add some more of our pigeons and their pedigrees. I will add a few pictures over the next few days. The photographer can’t travel to Wales until the end of he season when we wil put more professional pictures up.

Paratyphoid

Vaccination in the pigeon sport is done against many diseases, the one mandatory being paramyxovirus.

Today I vaccinated my youngsters against paratyphoid. Now my early youngsters have already been vaccinated against four diseases.

Vets seem to still have different opinions on what to do against paratyphoid. I have to admit the vaccination does seem to effect the pigeons for 48 hours. You see them a bit lifeless for a day or two but after that they are perfectly fine.

Thankfully we have never had a serious issue with paratyphoid. I have seen the devastating effect at other lofts, so now I take no chances. I will say one thing I have noticed in recent years is that the more diseases I have vaccinated against, the better the base health of the pigeons. There has been no sign of the dreaded Adeno so far, and I expect it to stay that way as it has done the past 2 years. I do have some medication here though, just incase it does show we are prepared for it.

The hens are now up to one hour per training session. We have 19 to start training with. Sadly TWO federation winners from 2017 are injured and are likely to now only be raced on the short distance flights later in the year. When you only race a small team to get two of your winners injured before racing is a bit disappointing, but we make no excuses and hopefully some other hens will come to prominence this year.

Cancelled Races

All this weekend’s races into Wales have been cancelled due to more adverse weather. I have to say this has to be the worst year I can remember for consistent bad weather in March and April.There are a lot of questions now regarding the race programme? Personally, I would just push it on a week and drop the short distance race between Hythe (320km) and Lillers (424km). To be honest I was amazed to see a gap between these two races for a 100km race anyway. Of course racing these two flights 7 days apart is nothing for the pigeons, we have done this for several years. We know the reason is cost and the 100km races are money spinners for the federations, but surely common sense should prevail and dropping this needless flight and pushing the next 3 races on a week is the best idea? I know other fanciers I have spoken to agree on this, so I hope the federations make the right decision.The other idea is to race the cancelled flight on Tuesday or Wednesday. I don’t see an issue with this if the race is self-supporting and becomes a “training flight”. In Wales we have to pay every week whether we enter pigeons or not. Last week we didn’t enter pigeons but we still had to pay a “non-senders fee”. If we had a mid-week race next week there would be no chance of us being able to enter due to work commitments. I really think it would be unfair to hit all working fanciers with a fee to race mid-week, and be punished for working. Its already hard enough for working pigeons flyers, but if the retired fanciers want a midweek training race then of course this is a good idea. Working pigeon flyers are sadly in a minority so generally they get the raw end of the deal.I wrote an article about buying pigeons, and how April can be a good time to buy some youngsters from fanciers who have satisfied their own numbers. Yesterday some pigeons arrived from Marcel/Koen Cop – Stijn Gijsbrechts. They will form part of our young bird team and race with / against our own pigeons. This loft has put up some excellent results in the past and also are famous for breeding the mother of the “De Leeuw” of Marcel Wouters. I am very satisfied with the pigeons, all very strong, closed ventbones, soft feathers. Included were two youngsters from the 2nd Ace Union Antwerpen. It will be really interesting to see how they cope with the landscape here in Wales, but I am sure there will be no problems with very good results.

Swindon

The first flight of the year took place on Saturday from Swindon (69 miles / 110km). The weather was warm with tail winds. The returns were indifferent. Some people got them all home, most seemed to lose between 2-5 pigeons. I even heard of one fancier who entered 11 pigeons and by the time the club read the clocks he still had no pigeons home.

Personally I find strong east winds dangerous. If its light winds then usually there isn’t a problem, with velocity’s between 1400-1800mpm. The best pigeons should handle this and still manage to win. When you start to reach between 1800-2100+mpm then the results and returns start to get a little strange. I think, if it’s very strong then form and quality goes out the window. I say this with no disrespect to fanciers who perform better in strong tail winds. Generally now if the wind and velocities are predicted to be above 2000mpm then I keep the best pigeons at home. I remember a very good old fancier who used to keep all his pigeons at home under these conditions. He told me there was no benefit sending, you just risk losing your best pigeons.

The best example I can think of is Hullavington in 2013. It was the second flight with old birds (54 miles / 86km). The east wind was so strong some federations were smart enough not to liberate. The race was a disaster, over 60% of the old birds never returned. Some people had them reported in Ireland, I know two fanciers even had pigeons reported in Belgium from this flight.

Our hens now fly 30 mins in the morning before work, and 30 mins after work. It will be upped to around 40-50 mins before racing starts. I don’t believe exercise is as important to the results with hens. I’ve had hens that barely train in the week but still manage to win on a weekend. We should start training next weekend, and then race the week after. They will be aimed at the middle / one day long distance flights, so Newbury and Epsom the week after will be used as a tune up for the first Welsh Combine race on the 19th May from Hythe (200 miles / 320km). It will be a jump to get them to 320km for their third flight, but as they flew an intense young bird programme I don’t think an extended break has done them any harm with races from Lillers, Duffel and Kinzweiler to follow. Of course we want to win every race, but with lack of time the sprint races with old birds will be given little importance and we will try to win the Channel races and then the aim is to win every young bird flight on the whole programme. Below is a local result with the young birds last year. This flight we had 40 pigeons arrive at once. We lost 2 mins, but the pigeons still almost managed to win the federation that day. It is something we will try to replicate again this year.

Warm Weather

The nice weather is on its way (finally!) I hope by the end of the week to have the hens in fairly good shape. Only when they fly for one hour we will take them away in the basket once and then straight into the races.

I’ve been so busy in work over the past two weeks and with only the youngsters going out, I have been flirting with the idea of only racing young birds this year. Next year I will only race young birds, but I have been considering bringing it forward a year. I am still going to prepare the hens, but finding a balance to do everything is extremely tough. If it gets too much then sadly the old birds will stop, and the best racers will move to the breeding loft. That is of course the sliver lining!

Over the weekend again some fantastic results were put up by friends. Peter Theunis in particular had a very good result winning 43/58 prizes and placing 9 pigeons in the top 29 places against almost 6,000p! A top result and the first of many no doubt! The next pigeon I am going to write about comes from this loft, the famous “Super Rossi”.

Vermin

In a previous post a simple idea called “marginal gains”. The theory that if you improve several elements by just 1%, overall they add up to a significant increase in performance. I think something that a lot of fanciers overlook is vermin control. Just because you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

It was something in the past that my dad always took care of, but as he has been ill it is something I have had to monitor myself. I always believe you learn more from a mistake or a defeat rather than a successful period. And with vermin control I learnt the hard way.

It’s amazing the amount of lofts I have entered that I have smelt the presence of mice. At our own lofts we have both poison and traps down all year around. Our loft is very close to empty land, and even in the last 6 weeks we have managed to get rid of 16 mice.

Mice generally come out during the night and urinate everywhere they walk, so control of these pests is very important. If you haven’t already, I suggest getting a few good snap traps and some poison and monitor it every few days, you may be surprised at the result.

Another annoyance is moths inside the loft. I remember about 10 years ago it was a problem for us. Now I spray the lofts on a regular basis, give the lofts a smoke treatment and I also place fresh lavender in all the lofts. I picked this up from Henri Van Doorn, it keeps the moths away and makes the loft smell nice. Moths may seem a tiny issue, but if you have an infestation they irritate the pigeons and stop them from resting. An unsettled, unrested pigeon will never win the top prizes. Although time is very limited at the moment due to work the early and later youngsters are in a good routine. We try now to give time to get the hens into some shape. I deliberately made the new loft closed, as most of our other lofts are open with lots of oxygen. I wanted to try something a bit different. With the warm weather the loft has become heavy, so a simple solution below and a new “false” door has been added. Plenty of oxygen on hot days is never a bad thing. One damp, rainy days the loft can become totally closed.

Young Stock

I mentioned in a previous post watching documentaries from other sports, and applying these to the pigeon sport.

Below is a link to a one hour documentary about Sir Alex Ferguson. I may be biased as a Man Utd fan, but he is probably one of the best managers ever, certainly during my lifetime.

What does Sir Alex put down to his success? I won't ruin the film if you haven't watched it, but a big aspect is putting faith in youth, and being extremely ruthless.

I think this is a huge quality to being a successful fancier. You need to be ruthless and select strongly. But I also think young pigeons are also a huge factor to success.

I don't mean racing, I mean in the breeding loft. Young hens, especially yearling hens are gold in the breeding loft. For the past 3 years I haven't allowed my racers to breed, but I always ensure the eggs from the best yearling hens are kept. It's no surprise that every year we get some super birds from these eggs.

We have been fortunate to to win 5 x 1st Nationals, and FOUR of these have been bred from yearling hens.

Of course you can breed good pigeons from older hens, but generally in recent years once a real super breeding hen gets older than 7 years old we rest them, and they are purely used in the summer for some special breeding pairs for latebreds. This has worked very well for us and we have got some real good breeders via latebreds from our old hens. But the hens we keep over 7 have to be the real exceptional ones (only 2!), the good ones older than 7 have either been removed or given away.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SbtZjIEs5r0

John Rockx

I came across a recent article published in De Duif, written by Ad Schaerlaeckens. It's been translated into English below.

In the past 3 years John Rockx has been one of the best in Holland. We actually visited him as far back as March 2009. We purchased a few young birds but we had no luck. That happens, he is still an excellent fancier with some great pigeons.

In conversation with John Rockx

For this category only enthusiasts are eligible who play exceptionally well and that is why they are often well-known names.

But do you have to have 'name' in our sport to play well?

Of course not. Examples of over-the-top enthusiasts who, considering all proportions, play as well or better than many famous names.

Now take John Rockx from Zegge Noord Brabant Netherlands. In 2016 he was one of the very best in the country in the small long distance.

And that with relatively few pigeons on a relatively small accommodation.

He never gave much money to pigeons and yet he became top on the most difficult part of our sport: One day long distance

He did / does it with pigeons from regional fanciers, from friends, by exchanging or breeding together. Thus reaching the top can only be done by a professional. And those who know the now retired John better know that he is a professional. The deserved publicity he never got and nowhere gives us here.

RESULTSJohn had the 1st Ace pigeon in the long distance in Brabant 2000 (unique) in 2015 and in 2016 and he classified no less than 6 pigeons in the first 50.

In Rayon 2 (almost 500 members) he had the 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 15th best Long Distance pigeon. In 2016 and in 2017 he also became Champion 4 first from the clock. Results 2016 and 2017 with only the earliest prizes:

The eye catcher on the loft is the Vale, bred from a pigeon from G de Nijs. Which comes from a direct Donckers Stickers. De Vale won:

Bourges NPO 2nd from 4.464 p.-Melun 2nd from 18.466 pSecond 2nd of 735 p-Argenton 7th of 1,879 p.-Quievrain 3rd of 372 p.-Issoudun 17th of 2,823 p-Issoudun 22nd of 2,670 p.Chateauroux 35th of 1,066 p. And that's only a grip.Another topper is the 13-1346827. In 2015, this became 1st Ace Pigeon Long Distance Brabant 2015. That is a combination where on average 5,000 pigeons flew each race. This 827 comes from two pigeons. The father of Braad de Joode, the mother again of G de Nijs.

Here we leave it at. People do not like being buried under numbers and the above should suffice to show how good that man really is.

JOHN ROCKX GENERAL

When and how did you end up in the pigeon sport?As a child of 8 years. My neighbor, also uncle, was a pigeon fancier.

When did you start playing well? With which pigeons was that?

Shortly after I was married, I was only in my twenties, I could go with the best. I did it with pigeons from regional fanciers and pigeons Heesters from Reusel. He had Klak pigeons, so the pure Janssens. It was in the years that the neighboring Sint Willebrord counted about 350 fanciers. And those men there were good, just not to play against. You could not earn more than there and that is why those men might have such good things.

And after that?Not to slime but my loft got a huge boost with pigeons from you in the 90's. I gave C Maas Roosendaal a young out for a bon and that became 1st NATIONAL Ace pigeon in the Netherlands.Photographer Fred La bruyn also succeeded hugely with pigeons that he got here. He even had the 4th and 5th National Ace Pigeon middle distance. They came from a boy from your Wounded Knee that also includes Bubbles, stock pigeon from Verkerk.

How many pigeons do you have now, John?I start each year with 28 widowers but soon that number is reduced to about 18. The breeders, twelve couples, are elsewhere. Of course there are experiments that you can hardly call 'grower'. Boy I grow a good 40.

You have been around for a long time. Pigeon sport has changed a lot over the years. So there were so-called mega-lofts. How do you think about this?

Do not have anything against people with lots of pigeons, they do not do anything wrong, but something has to be done otherwise the sport will go under.DutchWhere in pigeon sport are you still annoyed?

I do not get annoyed, but if I have to mention something, it is jealousy. The first time you win a first, everyone wishes you congratulations. If that happens more than a few, keep winning your first prizes then you will almost be ignored.

FLAG BEARERSDid your best pigeons come from conscious links or was it more of a coincidence?Most of them happened to be coincidence and often from the pigeons. My best today, I do not call him the Rocket or the Comet or something, but just 'the vale' has a pigeon from G de Nijs as father. My other topper, the '27', has a pigeon from the same G de Nijs as mother.That is what I mean by 'friends'.I also succeeded with pigeons from Rinus van Gastel Roosendaal. (Note A S: What should have been good, Cor Leytens Ooselbeers also got super).

What did your best pigeons do in their birth year and did they have specific characteristics?They were ordinary pigeons, prize flyers and sometimes not even that. Super performance as a youngster does not need a residence permit here. Pigeons that are well in hand and of good origin sometimes also get chances and that has already been rewarded.

How do your good pigeons perform for the small long distance with strong wind?Then they are there too, fly also head, but not the pure head.

How long do your best pigeons fly?Four years but I have to say that I have already lost several supers by playing too long. The temptation to pass them on is so great because you breed so few supers.

GAME WITH OLDWhat kind of system do you play with old ones?Traditional widowhood, so only cocks.

How is the preparation for the flights?They are coupled with the breeders after Christmas. They will be re-connected around April 1 but only for three days. At the same time, when they float, they are trained for consecutive days. I take them away several times a day and so they learn the game quickly.

Is there shown?With my way of lapping it is not necessary. I only show for the long distance flights and other than most: In the morning on the day of basketing.Have you ever tried a summer boy?Certainly. Even pigeons that saw only a few times basket. There are quite a lot of lost, but I also left excellent kites.

You play HaFo and small Fond. Is the guidance the same?No difference no. They are in the same loft, receive the same training and nutrition.The yearlings usually stay on the HaFo, the old ones continue.

GAME WITH BOYAnd the youngsters? Do you make a lot of work with rags?I start early, for me it means at the end of May, from 5 km. Then there are driven once or ten to about 30 km.

How do you play them?Because I do not have room, not everything is in a loft. Do not be eitherspecialist with boy.

Is there still being driven between the flights?There is no point with the old. I sometimes ride with a boy. It will certainly not be bad, but whether it is necessary? There are plenty who play well with youngsters without having to ride with them.

Also a lot of problems with Adeno?In the past enormous but fortunately less. In case of real problems, medication is seized. You have to.

Do you lose a lot of young people?What is much? About a quarter. Compared with earlier years, that is a lot, to present-day standards, little.

FEED, MEDICAL AND WITH PRODUCTSTo say something special about your way of feeding?Not really. Or it must be that youngsters get lighter food than old ones. The pigeons for the long distance are given the same as for the Hafo. After all, everything is in a loft.

What are you blindly practicing against?Paratyphoid. I'm afraid of that and every ten days every ten months is cured.

What do you think about one-day courses after the flight? Do you believe in boosting?I do not believe in either. In fact, it is simple. Healthy pigeons can miss medication. Do not let pigeons fail, then you can not do without.

Which supplements do you give?Brewer's yeast, minerals powder, that kind of 'fish meal' from Dr. Marien. Apple cider vinegar and garlic when I think about it.

Which would you absolutely not want to miss? And do you believe in vitamins?I think you can miss all those supplements and I do not believe that vitamins add anything.

HOKKENWhat do your lofts look like?They are practically closed. Light from above. In the winter, the windows are half open.

Do you let go of your pigeons in the winter?If the weather is slightly, they go out. Of course not in the merry-go-round.Have you ever done anything with regard to the lofts that caused a turnaround for the better? Or vice versa?Absolutely. What turned out to be a huge improvement was to close the lofts so that the trip would no longer be possible.

With others it is the other way around. They started to play better when they opened the lofts more.I know, I know. That is pigeon sport.

JOHN ROCKX MISCELLANEOUSWhat is the best move you ever did?Close the lofts.

If you got a lot of money to spend. Who would you get pigeons from?I really do not want to slim, but that is again with you, W de Bruijn or Rik Hermans, Co VerbreeGebr Schele.pigeons?I am not someone who only talks about pigeons. My grandchildren are worth more to me. I have enjoyed conversations with Co Verbree, Maarten Huijsmans, Scheele and Andre Roodhooft.

Who are those 'good' friends' when I can ask.My best pigeon mate is Leo Kriesels. We do everything together, train pigeons and wait for the flights.

In particular John van Dongen, Comb. Oomen. Together we sometimes visit champions and that is enjoyment.

What is the biggest myth / the biggest faint kul / nonsense in pigeon racing?Those gigantic amounts that are given for pigeons nowadays. Too ridiculous for words.What do you think of the eyes theory?I do not know anything about it and I'm kul.

Do you read a lot? Do you watch a lot on the internet?Both, especially in the winter. During the season I prefer to cycle with the woman in nice weather or between the grandchildren. I have someone who takes care of the pigeons. Many make it too difficult, are too slaves of their hobby, forget to live.

What do you do if you once played badly?Hold the pigeons for three days and feed them lightly.

FINALLYJohn Rockx is someone who listens rather than talks. A man who knows what he wants and what lives in pigeon sport. For example, in 2016 he had a long distance in the first ten NATIONAL Ace pigeons. Two cocks and I had to hear from him that the other eight hens were. Do men like G v d Wouwer, Willy Daniels and others have to play hens alone? John, however, does not think about it, he has confidence in himself, goes his own way, and that has taken him far!People like him who often use a lot of mega-lofts with limited resources are a jewel for the sport.

“Chrisje”

The last 3 pigeons I have written about have been cocks. Now is the time to write about an exceptional hen. I first heard of Henri Van Doorn in 2006 after a conversation with Ad Schaerlaeckens. I wanted to add some speed into my pigeons. I wanted pigeons that could race well at middle distance and mature quickly. Ad didn't hesitate to recommend Henri and we arrange a visit with the view of bringing some to Wales.

The topper of the loft when we visited was the hen "Chrisje". She raced fantastically and was also a sensational breeder. We managed to bring 9 back to Wales including a sister and a son of "Chrisje".

In 2018 the son of Chrisje is still fertile. His first egg gave the 1st National Maidstone and even now he breeds good pigeons. I don't believe Henri has many children left of this hen, so we are lucky to have him and will breed as many as we can. By coincidence he picks a new hen from Henri this year, a daughter of "Copij" for 2018.

Below are some examples of the results obtained from this bloodline in Holland. A sensational hen who is responsible for some fantastic pigeons not just in Holland but also in the U.K.!

Adeno

I read yesterday two interesting posts on Adeno (young bird sickness) on the site of Ad S and PT.

Peter mentioned the U.K. and in particular a more aggressive form of Adeno here than our friends on the continent. Is it down to over use of medication?

I think for a lot of fanciers in the U.K. sadly the answer is probably yes. Last year in particular if you read chat forms and speak to local fanciers some people were wiped out. The pigeons were flying for 30 mins and within 48 hours they were dead. I think over use of medication in some areas is a big problem. If you look back at some of the posts during the winter one of the main topics of conversation was medication, when to use it and where to buy it. You even had people advising weekly medication for an entire season. If you do this for several years it's no wonder you end up with pigeons that cannot stay healthy without it. I would ask the fancier do they take weekly paracetamol for headache prevention? I certainly hope not!

We have suffered Adeno in the past, we have been lucky that the last time we had it was 2015. Within 3 - 4 days of medication the droppings were good again and after one week they started exercising again. I think it's important not to rush pigeons back from Adeno especially during racing. I think at least 10 - 14 days before they sit in the training basket again.

What can you do to prevent Adeno? I'm not so sure you can ever 100% prevent it. Everyone has had it at some point. We use deep litter in all our lofts. The lofts are given a proper clean once per week. I think it certainly helps as you find the weak ones very quickly and they are removed.

Some fanciers cannot get along with deep litter for numerous reasons. I know some who virtually clean up behind each pigeon all day long. There is never a dropping in the loft. I think they create an environment that becomes almost too clean.

I would never buy pigeons from such a fancier. I could never replicate the environment in my own loft so their pigeons would become sick very quickly. It's no surprise that the pigeons I've been successful with come from fanciers who use some form of deep litter at some stage throughout the year.

The Nearly Cock

The next pigeon I wanted to write a brief post about is called The Nearly Cock. He is a small to medium sized dark chequer cock, and was raced by the partnership Scammell and Peploe.

He raced many top prizes in his career with the best being 3 x 2nd National from Lillers, Bonn and Kassel in Germany. But he also raced some excellent prizes on the short distance. One example being 3rd Federation Reading against 6,000p.

He was bred in 2002 from two unrelated pigeons. What's interesting is the father came for free via a swap, the mother came from a clearance sale. She was one of the last unsold pigeons! It goes to show that not only do you not need to spend a fortune for good pigeons, but you also need a lot of luck!

I think now this pigeon is more famous as a breeder than a racer. For Scammell and Peploe many top prize winners have been bred from him and his children.

Other fanciers have also reaped the rewards from the Nearly Cock such as Derek Flowers, Ian Bromley etc.

We were very fortunate to have the Nearly Cock at our own loft for some joint breeding. I think what struck me most was although not the most special pigeon in the hand, he was so intelligent. He watched and knew everything they was going on around him. A once in a lifetime pigeon for sure!

Patience

The new racing season will start again in 3 weeks. The pigeons are now nice and settled into their new loft, and this week we should have some eggs from the racers. I’ll slip eggs from the best racers under feeders, even if they are weaned around the 7th May I still find they can make some great results as young birds on the races in September. I’ve decided this year as we only race hens to only allow them to just sit for 10 days, and then they will go straight onto the widowhood system.

After a six-month split, the pigeons of course are carrying some excess fat but after being hit (again) with more snow, we will for sure miss at least the first race, maybe the first two or even three races. I know a lot of fanciers are starting to panic, but I think trying to rush the pigeons at this stage will only result in heavy losses. The first 4 races on the programme are from only 68, 68, 90 and 90 miles. We have sent young birds straight to 90 miles and won with these pigeons so for yearlings that flew 10 races in 2017 as young birds, 90 miles will be no problem at all. It’s a long programme for the old birds, and for me racing and training those in extremely cold weather will only do more harm than good in the long run. We are still racing old birds from Germany to Wales in July, so keeping them locked up and fresh at the start of March while others train in freezing conditions I think it more of a benefit than a negative. It's also a point that this is where the working fancier has a massive disadvantage against the professional / retired fancier. Until the clocks change at the end of March it's almost impossible to get into a set routine.

Usually in the off season I watch a lot of pigeon DVDs and I read a lot of pigeon books.

This year I've done something different. I've watched DVDs and documentaries about other sports, and how great teams and individuals have become successful. I think you can always learn from successful people, and one thing that caught my attention was the success of Team GB in the sport of cycling.

The man behind the success is Sir Dave Brailsford. He was the coach that dominated the Olympics, and now his team dominates the mountain races.

It must be mentioned that his Team Sky has recently been caught up in a lot of controversy regarding their first Tour De France winner Bradley Wiggins, and now there are question marks regarding Chris Froome on the use of TUE's. But it's the applications that Brailsford applied to his Olympic success that caught my attention.

Brailsford is a fellow Welshman, and he turned the British Cycling team from also-rans to superstars. How did he do it? It's a very simple theory called the aggregation of marginal gains.

He explained it as “the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.” His belief was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.

It is a very simple approach, and it can be applied to literally everything in life.

Pigeon racing is a sport that is separated by seconds. If you improved the trapping, fitness, quality of feed, environment etc by even just one percent then of course it could well be the difference between 1st and 5th.

I'll give trapping as an example. I think in some (not all) cases bad trapping is down to the fancier. We flew the 1st and 3rd National Maidstone in 2014. This was still after a 2 mins lost though bad trapping. This was totally my fault as I had allowed the pigeons to pick up some bad habits prior to racing. If I had concentrated on making improvements earlier on then there is no doubt we would have finished 1st and 2nd National with a two minute lead.

Observation is the key, and spotting a problem / improving it before it becomes an issue is something all the best fanciers I have visited have. The fancy word for it in other sports is called marginal gains. But it doesn't hurt to be reminded, especially after a successful season. I myself have taken my foot off the pedal after success, so a reminder not to do it again is never harmful 👍.

Keep it Simple

One thing I've learnt over the years is pigeon racing is only as complicated as you make it.

The Cheltenham festival is in full flow and the most successful trainer so far is Gordon Elliot. He was asked why is he so successful? His reply was to keep it simple. I think the same applies to pigeon racing.

Below are some of the key points that I follow. No secrets, no fancy potions in the water just common sense:

1) Strong Selection. You have to select very strongly if you want to succeed. Always pick quality over quantity, and always select on results not pedigree.

2) Don't overcrowd. Less pigeons with more space is far better than keeping too many. Too many pigeons will only cause problems.

3) A dry loft. A dry loft is very important. We use deep litter in our lofts as we have little time to clean, and it keeps the loft lovely and dry. You can never win and keep the pigeons healthy in a damp environment. The price and attractiveness of the loft isn't important. I've seen many lofts that are awful to look at, but are perfectly dry and the pigeons race extremely well.

4) Not too many blind cures. Too much medication is never good. The pigeons will become dependent on it, and you will end up work weak pigeons. All our best pigeons rarely get sick. You should also select the pigeons on natural health.

5) Varied diet. A good mixture with many different grains is also important. And you should never under feed the pigeons, this might work for a couple of races in a tail wind but generally this will never end well.

6) Dedication. Of course this is the most basic one of all. In anything you do, pigeon racing especially you only get out what you put it. I'm not saying you should be at the loft 13 hours a day, but a dedicated fancier, with a good loft and good pigeons will always be towards the top of the results sheet every year.

Maverick

13th MarchThe last pigeon I wrote about was a fantastic red cock called "Gatch". I don't want to write too much about my own pigeons but, after writing about "Gatch" I want to touch on his grandson "Maverick".

Maverick was born in 2001. At the time we didn't really focus on the youngsters, they were darkened for 6 weeks but the programme was seen as experience only.

Maverick showed his potential as a young bird. He won 2nd Federation Newbury against over 2000p, and from Epsom the following week won 3rd Federation against over 2,000p although he came to win this race.

As a yearling, this was probably his worst season. He only flew a few top prizes but he showed his quality from an awful race from Lillers. We entered four pigeons and he was the only one home on the day. We actually lost 3 federation winners that day. Many people were finished for the season.

The turning point that I believe turned him from a very good pigeon into a great pigeon was the first race of the season in 2003. He was the only pigeon missing from a 68 mile race, and he came home the following day. He certainly didn't enjoy this experience.

After this race, he never put a foot wrong at any distance. The biggest win was of course him winning 1st National Liege from over 400 miles against 6,200p but this is just a small part of a big prize list.

An example is the week before the National win he won 1st Federation Newbury against 2,800p (his full brother "91" was close behind winning the 2nd place). He flew top prizes almost weekly during 2003 and 2004.

After his National win he was moved to the breeding loft. Not all top racers make top breeders. He struggled for 2 seasons in the breeding loft but the direct hit came via a hen from Henri Van Doorn. A daughter of his "Flycon".

Many top prizes were won, the best being by a grandchild winning 1st National Brussels. Even in 2017 he makes his mark. A granddaughter of Maverick wins 1st and 4th Federation Swindon crossed with pigeons from Peter Theunis.

The next pigeon I will write about is called "The Nearly Cock". A pigeon that won 3 x 2nd National and is responsible for many big winners in the East of Wales.

Vaccinations

Tomorrow we will vaccinate our early youngsters. For the past 2 years with my dad being ill, I decided it was time for us to reverse the roles. In the past I would hold the pigeon while my dad would inject the pigeons for paramyxovirus.

Now the role is the opposite. With practice I'm getting much better at doing it. I've also vaccinated other fanciers pigeons, and thankfully everything has gone smoothly.

One day before we vaccinate I always like to handle all the youngsters. I look for anything that I don't like. I do this prior to weaning and over time if you select strongly for several years then there isn't many that are flawed. Only one was removed today and I'm looking forward to getting them into a better training routine once the nice weather begins.

The same applies with the old birds, although they had an accidental training session on Thursday. The aviary door fell off and both the cocks and the hens managed to escape. Neither me or my dad were around and at the end of the day we already lose one yearling cock to the hawk. We don't race cocks but it still now leaves us one short.

I mention the hawk, our neighbour yesterday also lost a 3 year old cock taken by a hawk in front of his eyes. His best candidate for the one day races already gone.

With 5 weeks to go if you haven't already it's always best to have a check by the vet. Everyone I speak to seems to be blind treating their pigeons for all different diseases without consulting the vet. What's more worrying it seems a lot of the medication is bought from rogue sellers on Facebook. It's always best to consult a vet who is a pigeon specialist.

We wait for the results before any treatments are given, but based on what I see with my own eyes I suspect no or at worst a minor problem.

Gatch

Over the next few months I'm going to write about some of the best pigeons I have been lucky enough to hold in my hands over the last 20 years.

The first place to start is a red cock called "Gatch".

"Gatch was born in 1995. He was bred and raced in Wales by Dave and Gloria Clappe in Cardiff. Dave was an excellent fancier but in my opinion his wife Gloria was even better. You could see the pigeons in the loft loved her and she was a very very strict selector.

Dave and Gloria lived in a small terraced house and raced very few pigeons. "Gatch" won loads of top prizes as a young bird and yearling.

The final flight in 1996 was the biggest race of the year from Thurso. There was an entry of 4500p from 500 miles. Dave was in hospital for two weeks and told Gloria which pigeons were to be entered. "Gatch" the new star yearling of the loft was to remain home for the next season on Dave's instructions.

But Gloria didn't listen. She saw the form of the pigeon and basketted him for the race anyway. She told Dave he remained at home.

What happened? Of course Gatch would win 1st Welsh Combine in the biggest race of the year from 4500p. Just for reference - Dave and Gloria won the same race again in 1997 with another famous pigeon "Hattrick". He was also 1st National Ace pigeon that year. Not bad for a loft with only 16 cocks!

But for me Gatch was superior to Hattrick. When they raced head to head in 1996 Gatch would win most weeks against his rival. But both were excellent pigeons. "Gatch" would never race again after his win. During March 1997 he disappeared for 1 week. By an amazing stroke of luck a neighbour found him in the chimney of the house, stuck at the top, barely still alive.

He recovered and became a sensational breeder. His daughter we purchased for only £35 in 1999. We named her "Gloria" and she became the mother of 2 National winners for us in two years. Her son "Maverick" was born from "Gloria" x "Jacks Lad". He was our star racer at the time and came close to beating Gatch in 1996 and Hattrick in 1997. "Jacks Lad" did have further to travel in a head wind but he fell short and was beaten for the 1st National in 96 and 97. He actually came from pigeons from Leen Boers in Holland via a friend for free. Leen Boers was a famous young bird racer in the 80s and 90s. His "Mirage" would win the 1st National Orleans against over 100,000p! I mention he comes from a successful young bird racer, this is something I also think is important and will write about soon.

Dave and Gloria had to finish in the sport in 2001 and our biggest mistake was not purchasing "Gatch". He actually ended up in China but we missed our opportunity to buy him for little money.

An interesting note about this pigeon - he came from two yearlings that coupled by accident. His origin is based on the "Motta"of Van Hee, Wervik. The pigeons from Dave and Gloria still remain at our loft and still win in 2017. They prefer a strong headwind, but it’s testiment to the quality that after so many years we still have the lines here today.

For me youth is one of the most important part of a good breeding loft. Dave and Gloria recognised this and always bred from their yearling hens.

This is just a brief post about a fantastic pigeon who is only really known in Wales, but should be talked about a lot more.

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